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The Moon's heavily cratered far-side. The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, creating a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, as well as alternative explanations, and research continues into how the Moon came to be formed.
Artist's depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies. Such an impact between Earth and a Mars-sized object likely formed the Moon.. The giant-impact hypothesis, sometimes called the Theia Impact, is an astrogeology hypothesis for the formation of the Moon first proposed in 1946 by Canadian geologist Reginald Daly.
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite.It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always face Earth.
Space roundup: The moon's surface shows it's shrinking, the Summer Solstice is nearing and June begins with Venus behind the sun and four planets. Where did Earth's moon come from? We have Theia ...
The Moon formed after a collision 4.5 billion years ago between the young Earth and a Mars-sized object, called Theia - but what happened next?
We don’t know the exact details, but the Giant Impact Hypothesis is the most widely accepted explanation for how our moon formed. We don’t know the exact details, but the Giant Impact ...
The Earth and Moon formed at the same time when the protoplanetary disk accreted; The Theia-impact scenario described above; The lunar rock samples retrieved by Apollo astronauts were found to be very similar in composition to Earth's crust, and so were likely removed from Earth in some violent event. [14] [18] [19]
This explained the lack of water, as the vapor cloud was too hot for water to condense; the similarity in composition, since the Moon had formed from part of the Earth; the lower density, since the Moon had formed from the Earth's crust and mantle, rather than its core; and the Moon's unusual orbit, since an oblique strike would have imparted a ...